6 Weeks

Today (Saturday March 27th) marked 6 weeks since I left the U.S. If I do that 4 more times it should be about time for R&R. If I do it 8 more times it will be about time for me to come home. As it is we are about to enter into 100 days of wind. Our spring that brings sand and dust storms and destroys not only any semblance of cleanliness but also tents, portajohns, and DoD personnel. I have gotten a lot done and read a lot of books and studies a lot and am working on getting school going. All I need at this point is TA in order to start taking classes online. I hope to leave the Corps with my AA degree and am 18 credits closer than I was before I joined. I am also getting interested in names. Perhaps kids will be in me and Mel's future before too long. It is just a thought for now, but there won't be much holding us back. Again, my one great prayer request for us is that our marriage will be strengthened by this deployment. Immensely. That is all for now.

Hello Afghanistan

Well, I have been here in Afghanistan for about 2 weeks, gone from home for three. Aside from the constant dustiness, it's not too shabby out here. Rather simple and we work at least 12 hours per day. Work is a bit slow and my focus is set too far ahead. I'm lowering my sights, attempting to just focus on the work at hand. Slightly hard when things at home are not really settled. Many things are stretching already, and of course they are the thing that I did not want to go through the stretching OF. But it'll be good. These things need to happen, especially for Melanie. She needs to be able to have some time to herself and sort things out on her own. Leaving her be while I have access to communications with her is quite hard for me to do. I'm a knowledge freak and always want to know everything that is going on. This worked really well for Melanie and me when she went to Ecuador because she always had new and interesting things to talk about or try to figure out. Well, now the quiet one is stateside going through regular days dealing with normal stuff, and the inquisitive one is in a new place with plenty to say and plenty to talk about but without an outlet. Luckily he (that being me) is not an emo little girl and is ratcheting his head on straighter.

This straightening is actually quite painful. I see a need. One that I know that I can fill, even from here. Yet the owner of that need wants to learn to fill those needs on her own (and rightly so.) Therein lies my problem. I desire to intervene and save her from what pain may come from the learning process, and yet I know in my head that I must let her do this how she desires as it is her experience.

Through this interminable period of stretching, learning, and growth, I understand that I need to accept a lot of new things and focus on this particular place that I am. I often forget to realize and appreciate how much easier it is for me than it was for Marines just one generation ago where the only correspondence was by letter and the mail was not always on time. Now I have email, motomail, packages, Google voice, Google talk, Skype, AND letters. Talk about taking things for granted! Though at the same time I use these avenues to escape the barren landscape and the lack of interpersonal interaction outside of the few people that I work and live with. My electronic hands have reached too far and pestered my favorite girl who is currently trying to "find herself" and finish her Master's and get a better job. So I've halted my advances and decided to let her take the lead. If she wants 'more comms' then I will be happen to indulge, if she doesn't, I'll have to learn to restrain myself.

So the actual deployment out here is getting off to a rather smooth start in stark contrast to the bumps that my personal deployment is taking.

I thought that it'd be similar to when I went to Sweden: Excited to go, enjoying the people I'm with, focused on the here and now. But what I failed to realize is that I was 1) Single, 2) had just spend 3 months living and working with the people I went to Sweden with, and 3) had a heck of a lot more to do with the native people, the church, the schools, my team, recreation, etc... Now I'm married but apart, only worked with the people 5 days a week that I came out here with, and am restricted in what I can do, where I can go, and who I can hang out with. I have things to do here and things that I am working on getting done, but I need to find some kind of recreation that I can delve into. I need to be interested in something out here.

Stupid preoccupations!